01/01/2011

This Day in 1959: Batista's Forces Cede Cuba to Castro; a History of the U.S. & Cuba

Cuba was ceded to the U.S. by Spain as part of the treaty that ended the Spanish American War, in 1898. Indeed, the main impetus for the war was U.S. support of Cuba, which had been seeking its independence from Spain since 1885. While most Americans have heard of the famous surge of Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders up San Juan Hill, perhaps not as many understand that it ended the Spanish-American War and led to Cuba's independence from Spain and tight association with the U.S.

Fulgencio Batista, who had served as Cuban president between 1940 and 1944, seized control of the Cuban government in a 1952 coup d’etat. The Batista regime, which maintained close relation with the United States, was corrupt and unpopular with the Cuban population.

Batista released Castro in 1955 at the urging of the Cuban public. Castro retreated to Mexico to train his guerrilla force along with famed revolutionary Che Guevara. He returned to his homeland in December aboard the ship Granma, surviving a bloody encounter upon landing. He retreated to the Sierra Madre mountains and began military operations.

On Oct. 19, 1960, the Eisenhower administration placed an embargo on exports to Cuba, setting in motion an uneasy political relationship that continues to this day. Read the full story, in English or Spanish.

In an uncanny parallel to the situation in Cuba, at the same time that Castro was first challenging Batista in Cuba, the U.S. was assisting Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in a coup that led him to becoming the Shah of Iran. Twelve years later, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, like Castro, would be exiled for his outspoken resistance to the Shah. And like Castro, he returned to overthrow his nemesis; and, as with the Bay of Pigs, the U.S. reaction included a humiliating military operation.

Today, the coup in Iran is blamed for removing a democratically elected leader and ushering in 26 years of authoritarian rule. In 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright issued an apology to Iran, saying, “the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development.” In June 2009, President Obama, in a speech in Cairo, became the first president to publicly acknowledge the United States’ role in the coup.